The final part of Heigia Hundeb is finally here. Will Astra leave? Read on to find out.

In our next adventure a member of the team is kidnapped, but how can the Torchwood team save their missing friend, if they've all been retconned?

Hope you enjoy!

Anja

Heigia Hundeb 3

-Early Thursday Morning-

Jack stretched slightly, then grabbed his coffee cup and headed out into the main hub. It was about four am. He paused as he heard the sound of a consistent clickety-clack, as if someone was typing. He hadn't heard anyone come in since he'd sent everyone off around midnight... Unless... Not everyone had actually left. He rounded the central column and spotted the culprit. Astra was standing at her work station typing something. He heard her swear rather creatively as something beeped, indicating it wasn't going to do what she wanted.

"What are you doing?" He asked, once he'd decided it was safe to interrupt her.

She looked up, "Huh?"

"I asked what you're doing?"

She looked back at the screen, then back at him, "Well, it's Thursday and the system still isn't running and I don't leave a job half done and..."

He cut her off, "You've been here till past midnight almost every night this week."

She nodded, "I know, like I said, the system still doesn't work."

He placed the cup down on her desk and stared at her till she looked him straight in the eyes, "Ast, have you even been home since yesterday?" She paused and thought, then shook her head. He sighed, "Why?"

There were many reasons why Astra hadn't really left the hub since the system failure (and before that too). One was the fact she wasn't going to walk out on them while the system didn't work. They'd be left in the lurch till Jack even hired the new recruit then they still had to teach that person everything. Then... Then there was the fact that she wanted to prove to Jack that she could do this, that this job should be hers, "It needs to be fixed," Was all she said though.

"Go home!" He said.

She shook her head, "Even if I work none stop till the end of my shift tomorrow with no interruptions, which by the way, any rift activity now would be disastrous, I still won't be done with the system, let alone investigating and cataloging the bloody thing that did this!"

Jack watched as she turned back to the screen and started typing again, he sighed, "At least let me get you some coffee..." He saw her nod. He grabbed his cup up and headed to the kitchen. His coffee would not compare to Ianto's by a long shot, but it was coffee. He thought for a moment, if he hung around and annoyed her enough, maybe she'd go home... Then he shook his head, no, she would just wind up hitting him and telling him to go do something useful, which would then turn into a wild weevil hunt where he got killed OR him calling Ianto, Gwen or Taye to annoy them, then everyone would be cranky with him. No good. He grabbed Astra's usual coffee cup from the shelf and poured the coffee into both cups. He looked at the cup. When had she gotten her own cup?

Gwen had hers, an old mug with the Cardiff Police logo on it. Taye's had a Navy insignia, Ianto had a plain mauve mug, his own was a dark blue mug, with 'Jack' written on it. In the back of the cupboard was Owen's, some saying was printed on it beside a picture of a disproportionate woman in a scanty bikini. Tosh's was there too, right beside Owen's, it had a nerdy computer saying on it. There were a few plain mugs, in case of visitors, like Martha... Or Rhys... But The mug he'd instinctively grabbed had a the Cardiff University, Engineering Department Logo on it. When had that been added to the cupboard? He thought back to when she'd first started. Ianto handed out a plain mug to her, but shortly after Taye had joined the University mug had started coming out... He sighed then picked up both mugs and headed to the central area.

He placed her mug beside her. She looked up and smiled, "Thank's Jack."

"You're welcome," He said, "Hey... When did you get the mug?" He asked, curious.

She thought for a moment, while picking up the mug of steaming coffee. She sipped it, nodded approvingly, then said, "Ianto just gave it to me one day when he was handing out coffee."

Jack nodded, "How's it going?" He asked motioning towards the computer.

She sighed, obviously frustrated, "It's not... It's like that thing put a virus in the system, which would probably be fine if the virus was of human creation, they all follow the same sort of format... But this one is so alien... "

Jack nodded, "If anyone can figure it out you can."

He was surprised when she shook her head, "I don't know Jack... It's times like this I really wish Joey was here..." Then she looked confused.

"Who's Joey?" Jack asked.

She looked at him, utter confusion etched over her young face, "I... I have no idea who he is... Or why... I would need him... But I do know he's a Computer and Alien technology expert for UNIT... And for some reason I should be angry about that..."

Jack looked at her, "Could this be something for your past?" He asked, "A brother or something?"

She shrugged, "I don't know..."

"Tell ya what, I'll go look up any Joey's, Joseph's or any other name that gets shortened to Joey in UNIT."

"Not on these computers you won't, even if they did work, you'd infect UNIT's systems."

Jack nodded, "Right... I'll call Martha in the morning and ask her to!"

-T-O-R-C-H-W-O-O-D-

-Thursday Afternoon-

Gwen ran her hand through her hair as she stared at the targets in front of them. This was Jack's brilliant idea. Instead of letting them have the day off he decided they could practice their shooting and combat skills. Not her idea of the perfect day. Rhys had the day off work, so she would've preferred to be spending the day with him, but no... Jack wanted them to shoot targets.

He said they needed the practice. She didn't believe him. After two hours she finally went to him, "What are you avoiding doing?"

He looked at her, "Sorry?"

"When the systems don't work you give the rest of us the day off, always. But today, you made us come in and you haven't been near your office all day."

Jack frowned and looked around the shooting range. Ianto and Taye were now looking at him too. He sighed, "I should be looking for a new Technichian..."

"Why?" Taye asked coming over.

Ianto approached to, he looked at Jack, "What did you do?"

Jack looked at them, "Astra's going to quit tomorrow..."

"WHAT?" The three of them cried.

"Jack... But she can't..." Gwen started.

Ianto shook his head, "She can... Jack never fully hired her... She's still filling in."

"She's always asking us for access to the system..." Gwen said softly.

Taye looked at Jack, "For heavens sake, she's been here longer then I have. She knows bloody more then I do too."

"You can't let her quit Jack," Ianto said.

"And I always said she would be here temporarily."

"Jack!" Gwen said.

"No, I made that decision before we took her on. I've strung her along long enough. And it's her choice."

"It's her choice because you never gave her a chance!" Gwen said, "She's here before Ianto even almost every day. Why the hell do you think that is?"

Jack turned away from them. He knew all this already. He turned back to them, "Don't we all have work to be doing?" He pointed to the targets. Why on earth had hew told them? Each of them gave him a lasting stare before turning away and reclaiming their weapons for training.

-T-O-R-C-H-W-O-O-D-

-Late Thursday Night-

It was almost midnight and Jack sat in his office staring at the time. As soon as the clock struck midnight it would be her last day. He looked away from the clock and out over the hub. She was seated at Taye's work station fixing something else. Every one's work station's had had to be fixed one by one. He sighed and picked up the file of possible technicians again. What had he been thinking hiring some one temporarily? And some temporary it had been. It had been nearly three months. A few weeks was temporary. Dealing with cataloging was temporary. Running missions and full repair of the hub was full time.

He stood up and made his way over to her. He watched her work for a few moments. The look on her face was total concentration. Suddenly she stopped what she was doing and looked up at him, "Yes Jack?"

"Nothing..."

She raised her eye brow at him and didn't look convinced, "Don't you ever sleep?"

"I thought we covered that in Southerndown..."

She laughed softly, "You're right. We did..."

"I called Martha by the way."

She suddenly looked interested, "Yeah?"

He pulled the chair over from Gwen's desk and sat down, "There's two hundred and thirty-six Joey's, Joseph's, Jolene's, Josephine's, Josephina's and any other name that can be shortened to Joey," He saw her face fall, "But," He added quickly trying to salvage the conversation, "There's only twenty-nine in the Technology Research Department."

"Really?" She sighed sadly, "I..."

"What?" He asked.

She shook her head, "Nothing, I don't know... It's..." She glanced at the computer screen, "I've got to get this finished..."

He nodded, "Right... It's almost Friday..."

She looked up at the clock, "Five minutes."

He nodded, "Right... I'll be in my office..."

--

-Friday Early Morning-

Jack looked up from the coffee machine when he heard a cheer from below. He assumed something was working now. He smiled as he made his way down with coffee for Astra and himself. He watched amused as she rushed around turning on all the computers. The rift monitor sprang to life. She stopped when she spotted him and smiled. He put the coffee down on Gwen's desk and smiled back at her.

"Every thing's up and running. I'll do a diagnostic over all the systems to be sure, then I need to get Ianto a new PDA, set it up, and-"

Jack cut her off, "You can do all that after you've gone home and rested."

"No, It won't take long," She said, turning around to her desk.

Jack grabbed her coat and went to stand beside her, "Later."

She looked up at him and sighed, "But..."

"You have all tomorrow... Today... What ever, but you haven't been home in three days. You're going home. You're going to get some sleep and I don't want to see you before eleven."

"ELEVEN? Jack, I've got way too much work to do to come in that late!"

"It's two o'clock in the morning Astra. I've found you here wednesday night and tonight. Wednesday you slept on the couch from five to seven. Not tonight. I'll even drive you home to make sure you go. Ianto won't mind one more day without his PDA. Set the diagnostic then go home."

She frowned at him. He was right though, she hadn't slept more then two hours and she was exhausted. She typed some things into her computer and watched as the scan came up on the screen. She stood up and took her coat from Jack, "That ride home would be nice..."

-T-O-R-C-H-W-O-O-D-

-Friday Mid-Morning-

Friday. Show Time. If he hadn't made his decision by the time she left work, it would be her last day. Who was he kidding, he'd decided to keep her on the team the day he'd dropped the list of potential operatives to the bottom of the pile. He just hadn't wanted to make it official. She was a kid, a sweet and incredibly smart kid, but a kid. And he couldn't imagine the team without her now.

He sighed, it was still an hour till she came in today. He had finally managed to get her to go home at five am. He was going to do it. She would become Torchwood Officer six-nine-three. He thought back over the past two months. They hadn't been brilliant, but they could have been worse. He grabbed his jacket and left his office. Ianto was handing out coffee to everyone, but Jack ignored him as he ran out the cog door.

The SUV drove through the streets of Cardiff towards the university. She lived only two blocks away from there. Which made him wounder why she rode her bike to school, not that it was any of his business. He was going to sweet talk her into staying. Not that, that was easy with her, she seemed immune to his charm smile. He stopped the car outside her apartment building and was about to go in when he spotted her sitting in the park across the street. She was rocking back and forth on a swing gently.

He crossed the road and approached her, she didn't turn to face him and as he took a seat on the swing next to her, he noticed she had headphones in. He smiled and watched.

"I know you're there Jack," She said, taking the headphones out of her ears.

"I was waiting for you to notice."

She laughed softly, "I'm not due at work for another hour."

"I know, but I wanted to talk to you, without the others hovering nearby."

"Ok," She looked at him, "So, what do you want to talk about?"

"You were right, about my not looking for anyone else. I haven't, not since, just after we hired Taye. You two fit into the team perfectly. But, I'm reluctant to fully replace them... One, yeah, but those two were so close that by holding on to one of them I've still got the other."

Astra nodded, "I understand that Jack, I do. Owen and Tosh were part of your family, they still are. Jack, I thought of them as my friends too. Tosh and I were still talking. I'd been wondering why she hadn't called my back about something and when you told me it all made sense, but since taking this job, I just feel like I'm intruding in her space. I don't want to be the girl who took Tosh's place..."

He reached out and took her hand, "I'm sorry. It was wrong of me to do that. You are so good at what you do that I don't know what I'd do without you now. The other day I looked back over those files and I didn't see anyone there that could do a better job than you. So I ask, properly. Do you want to join Torchwood?"

She looked at him and smile spread across her face. She didn't hesitate to answer, "Yes."

"Good. How about we go tell the others?"

She nodded and jumped off the swing, and slipped her arm through his, "Sounds like a plan Captain."